Arminio Rothstein

Arminio Rothstein (born July 25, 1927 in Vienna ; † October 1, 1994 ibid), better known as the clown Habakuk, was an Austrian academic painter , puppet maker and puppeteer , screenwriter and book author, musician , magician (Selim Arminian) and AHS professor . From 1968 to 1994 he worked for the children's television station ORF , where he invented, wrote and directed programs in which dolls interacted with himself as a clown Habakuk and other people.

Life

Arminio Rothstein was born the son of an " Aryan " mother and a Jewish lawyer. After Austria was annexed to Germany, he was no longer allowed to attend grammar school. From the persecution, he and his father finally hid underground in Vienna, in a cellar. After the war he graduated from high school and worked as a magician "Selim Arminian".

From 1948 to 1953 Arminio Rothstein studied together with Arik Brauer , Friedensreich Hundertwasser and Ernst Fuchs at Albert Paris Gütersloh .

In 1955 he married the art student Ingrid Grundler-Klauhsecker, later known under the stage name Ingrid Picca, with whom he created his first puppets. When in 1956 a "Puppet Cabaret for Adults" with pieces like "Salome", "Elis and Isabel", "Mine of Falun", "Don Camillo and Peppone" and "Prominenz am Zwirn" was performed on ORF, the puppets were made by Picca and Rothstein designed and played together. A film was made about the making of the puppets and received an award.

In 1967 Arminio Rothstein founded the Arlequin Theater in the Café Mozart at the Opera in Vienna together with Lena Rothstein, his second wife (the entrance was on Maysedergasse, today it is an Australian restaurant).

In 1971 Arminio Rothstein conceived his puppet show for ORF, "Habakuks Puppet Theater". The first piece, "The Red Shoes", aired on Wednesday September 29, 1971 at 5:00 pm. The show was later renamed "Clown Habakuks Puppet Circus". Each broadcast was preceded by a drawing by Winnie Jakob . One of the puppeteers at the time was Thomas Brezina .

After the performance, Arminio Rothstein, as the clown Habakuk, brought the Kasperl in front of the stage and spoke to his audience as a ventriloquist .

Clown Habakuk performed magic with the spell “Summ Summ” and mastered 35 musical instruments, but often only one piece of music.

Together with the magician Bobby Lugano , Arminio Rothstein produced 40 bedtime cakes in 1979 under the title “The magic box with Bobby and Habakuk”.

Over time, Arminio Rothstein and his fourth wife Christine built more than 1000 marionettes , stick and hand puppets , which are at home in the Arlequin Theater.

Arminio Rothstein died of lung cancer on October 1, 1994. His last public appearance was in March of the same year. He found his final resting place in the cemetery in Lilienfeld . His fourth wife Christine was born and raised in this city.

Famous dolls

• Kasperl with the slogan: "Das Beeeste iiiiiiist, das Beeeste iiiiiiist - we lock the Tintifax in a Kiiist '!"
• The BENCO doll, which experienced a wide variety of adventures and advertised the famous instant cocoa from Bensdorp cocoa originally from Austria, was produced by Arminio for the animation studio "TRAUM & MAIER" (source: Mr. Mario EK Maier) .
• The goose Mimi , played by Christine Rothstein .
• Warlock Tintifax, the evil opponent of Punch and Judy, with a green face and magical powers.
• Toby and Tobias and the parrot Jakob (1968–1989 on ORF).
• Dwarf Bumsti and the mouse.

The show was discontinued in the mid-1980s. The episodes were produced as part of the bedtime treat together with the legendary children's magazine Wunderwelt (1948–1987). Bumsti is a creation of the Viennese academic draftsman Teja Aicher (1909–1979). When it was re-broadcast in the 1980s, there were increasing complaints that dwarf Bumsti was a pasha and that the marriage with the married "mouse" was misogynist . Since this opinion arose 30 years after the Creator's death, the Creator could not comment on it himself. The Austrian Advertising Museum, which had received some episodes from Ms. Christine Rothstein, operator of Arminio Rothstein's “Puppet Theater Arlequin”, reported that research on the occasion of the exhibition “60 Years of Wonder World - Children's World” in the Alsergrund district museum (October 9, 2008 to February 1, 2009) showed that Teja Aicher portrayed himself with Bumsti - the lazy and pipe-smoking dwarf - and the gray field mouse was his personal view of his own wife.

• Helmi - designed and built in 1980.
• Maxi for the Musikantenstadl (1991/92).

A particular specialty of Arminio Rothstein was his art of making portrait dolls, i.e. making dolls that are amazingly similar to their models, such as B. Bruno Kreisky , Niki Lauda , Helmut Zilk , Ernst Wolfram Marboe , Anton Benya , Helmut Qualtinger , Fred Sinowatz , Karl Farkas , Ernst Waldbrunn .

Publications

• Do you want to play a clown? Jugend und Volk Verlagsgesellschaft, 1979, ISBN 3-7141-1269-3 .
• We play here. Ravensburger paperback books, 1983, ISBN 3-473-38846-7 .
• Do you want to play a clown? Circus, clowns, hand puppets, marionettes, magic. Verlag Ennsthaler, 1994, ISBN 3-85068-409-1 (new edition).
• Mimi's bedtime stories. Publishing house Donauland, 1999.

Movies

• ORF legends: Arminio Rothstein. The colorful life of the clown Habakuk. Documentary (45 min.), A 2016, written and directed by Christian Hager.

Web links

• Habakuk the clown. ( Memento of August 6, 2002 in the Internet Archive ).